College Football Playoff executive director Bill Hancock talks to the media during the SEC Football Media Days at the Wynfrey Hotel. / Marvin Gentry, USA TODAY Sports

by Paul Myerberg, USA TODAY Sports

by Paul Myerberg, USA TODAY Sports

HOOVER, Ala. - Given the shortened time span between conference championship games and the final College Football Playoff rankings, Playoff executive director Bill Hancock said Wednesdsay the selection committee will enter the season's final weekend with a blueprint with how to proceed in several different scenarios, similar to how the NCAA basketball committee maps out a projected bracket before the conclusion of the regular season.

"We're confident the committee will have plenty of time to make its decisions," Hancock said. "They will stay up as late as they need to. They will get up as early as they need to."

The implication is that the committee will have thoroughly analyzed all the possible pairings in advance of Dec. 6 slate â?? one that includes the SEC and Big Ten championships, in addition to in-conference Big 12 games between Kansas State and Baylor and Oklahoma State and Oklahoma. The committee will unveil the four national semifinalists at 12:45 p.m. ET on Dec. 7, less than 12 hours after the conclusion of the Big Ten and Mountain West championship games.

"Basically, the voting process is to create a small list of teams that can be compared to each other, six to eight teams," Hancock said. "They'll be analyzed backwards, forwards, any way you can think of. Then the committee will vote three or four of those teams into the rankings."

The selection committee will meet at the College Football Playoff headquarters in Dallas seven times beginning on Oct. 28, supplying a weekly top 25 every Tuesday until Dec. 7. Arkansas athletic director Jeff Long will announce the final four teams, Hancock said.

The 13-member committee will also place no emphasis on avoiding the possibility of a rematch â?? or a third meeting, in the case of teams that could meet during the regular season and again in a conference championship game.

"They won't monkey with the pure seeds," Hancock said. Even if Alabama and Auburn end the year ranked second and third, respectively, and even if the two had met only weeks earlier in the Iron Bowl, "they'll leave them right there and they will be a rematch."

"The fact is it's absolutely based on the pure seedings â?? 1, 2, 3, 4. If that yield as rematch, or a third game even, then that's the way it will be."